Venus Williams of the USA, who won the season-ending Sony Ericsson championship last week, would be in favor of a closer working relationship with the ATP.

By Douglas Robson, Special for USA TODAY

A David Stern or Roger Goodell might be a ways off, but a series of cross-tour initiatives has ushered in an era of unprecedented cooperation between the men's and women's tennis circuits and reignited talk of a single head overseeing the fragmented sport.

Look no further than the 2009 calendar, where a third or more of the ATP and WTA tournaments are now either combined or played in back-to-back weeks.

The idea of uniting the tours has long been a topic of speculative — some might say farfetched — discussion. But it has been gaining momentum via a number of ventures that have brought the organizations into closer alignment. Tennis executives say discussions about an umbrella organization running both tours have accelerated this year.

Steve Simon, a WTA board member and tournament director for the combined event at Indian Wells, Calif., says pooling resources in a game where the men and women compete on the same stage makes branding sense and can cut costs.

"The tours are working closer together and integrating assets," Simon says. "They are seeing the efficiencies and growth opportunities."

"We are looking at ways we can have synergies across the sport," ATP spokesman Kris Dent says.

To date, the dovetailing has taken place in four primary areas: calendar, administration, governance and, more recently, commerce.

•Some 35% of the ATP's 63 events and 40% of WTA 50 tournaments will be combined or played in consecutive weeks in 2009, among them events at Madrid, Cincinnati and Beijing.

•Staffs have been consolidating in London in recent years, and both human resources and IT functions are now shared. A number of media functions, such as the production of the annual media guide and the two tour websites, also are shared.

•This year the ATP and WTA teamed up in conjunction with the International Tennis Federation and the four majors to form a so-called integrity unit to combat gambling. That followed the formation of a joint anti-doping program overseen by the ITF in 2006.

•Next year the tours will embark on their first commercial joint venture by pooling digital rights for video streaming of content though a single portal called tennistv.com. They will split revenues evenly.

"We have done some things together already," observes Sony Ericsson WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott, who envisions a day five years down the road when the two tours could operate in tandem. "It is happening organically."

Scott, a former top executive with the ATP before becoming CEO of the women's tour five years ago, is one name that has emerged as a possible leader overseeing the tours. He has even publicly expressed interest in such a role.

But hurdles remain.

There would be thorny legal issues to iron out for the two member organizations, which are owned 50-50 by players and tournaments. They have separate television contracts. And Dent says the men's tour has no interest in securing a title sponsor like the WTA, which sold naming rights to mobile phone company Sony Ericsson five years ago for $88 million.

"There are some clear governance issues that would have to be overcome," Dent says.

Plus, the game's most powerful events, the four Grand Slams, aren't controlled by either tour.

At the same time, Dent and others say the disjointed and sometimes conflicting organizations have shown greater cooperation, such as the quick formation of the integrity unit after irregular betting patterns emerged last year.

"That wouldn't have happened two or three years ago," Dent says.

Though the title commissioner is a charged word for many in the sport, some believe it should and can happen. Others say that the idea of a czar-like leader is an American notion derived from this country's homogeneous leagues that doesn't necessarily fit well with the international, diverse nature of the sport.

WTA founder Billie Jean King sees benefits today even though she says the women were "squeezed out" by the men and forced to go their own way when the ATP was formed back in the 1970s.

"I think we can be even more powerful together than we are now," she says. "It doesn't mean we can't deal with men's issues or women's issues separately."

Venus Williams, a member of the WTA player council, likewise is a proponent of more integration. But she's also a realist.

"The combined events are good," the 28-year-old American said last week in Doha where she won the tour's season-ending championship. "And I think if those work, there is no reason not to move in that direction. But either way, I think both tours are viable business models."

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